Tell your Senator to reject Neil MacBride for US Treasury General Counsel!

President Biden has nominated Neil MacBride -- a former ExxonMobil lawyer who once sued the US Treasury Department – to be the next General Counsel of the US Treasury. MacBride once defended automobile companies who manipulated emissions controls in cars in order to cheat emissions laws, while the planet burned. He also defended Big Banks responsible for the 2008 financial crisis, Big Tech monopolies, and he even defended against allegations of widespread rape in the military.

We cannot allow this corporate revolving-door lawyer Neil MacBride to sit in this top Treasury position and give legal and policy advice to the US Treasury Secretary and staff.

Dear Senator, 
 
I am gravely disturbed by Biden Administration’s nomination of Neil MacBride for General Counsel at the Treasury Department. His past work fighting vigorously against the public interest on behalf of fossil fuel companies, Wall Street giants, Big Tech monopolies and even against allegations of widespread rape in the military disqualifies him from a role in the administration. We urge you to reject his nomination.
 
As Treasury General Counsel, MacBride would advise Cabinet-level officials and provide input on key policy decisions, but his record gives no indication that he would act independently of Wall Street, fossil fuel and other corporate interests deeply concerned with the policies of the Treasury Department.

By his own admission, MacBride worked to keep corporate executives out of jail for “financial fraud, anti-corruption, money laundering, economic sanctions, False Claims Act violations, securities enforcement, and procurement and tax fraud.”

MacBride once sued the very Department he has been nominated to serve, on behalf of ExxonMobil after the Treasury Department fined the oil major $2 million for violating U.S. sanctions against Russia related to the invasion of Crimea.

MacBride’s corporate clients also included several automobile companies involved in emissions scandals. He defended these firms against the exact kind of scrutiny the Treasury Department seeks to increase.

He represented Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley and credit rating agency S&P in litigation pertaining to their fraudulent ratings and sales of mortgage-backed securities, a direct cause of the 2008 financial crisis.

There are also indications that MacBride has undisclosed conflicts of interest for multiple other Wall Street giants. His firm-approved biography touted work securing declinations from the DOJ, the SEC, and state governments for “multiple global financial institutions,” and boasts of representing multiple Fortune 100 multinational companies in global corruption investigations.

MacBride’s nomination to the executive branch represents one more turn of the revolving door he has utilized throughout his career. After leaving the President’s then-Senatorial office in 2005, MacBride immediately joined the industry lobbying group the Business Software Alliance, which was accused of working primarily on behalf of Microsoft to improve the company’s image after its antitrust case.

MacBride returned to government four years later to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, where he led a crackdown on government whistleblowers including Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, even subpoenaing a New York Times journalist to compel him to testify against a source.

He also defended the Defense Department against allegations that it failed to curtail “widespread rape” in the military.

We need a General Counsel with a demonstrable record of and commitment to public service. Neil MacBride has forged his career fighting against the public interest. For these reasons, we urge you to reject the nomination of Neil MacBride. 
 
Sincerely,
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